Zen Garden: It Doesn't Get More Minimal Than This
Creative Commons: TDIGUY1
READ MORE ABOUT:
You think you need to live with less? Check out Gutted, chock full of hoarders who desperately need to spring-clean their lives.
Everett Bogue is one of the more interesting writers about living a minimalist lifestyle. He started it when he left his day job to pursue "a location-independent life." Now, his only fixed address appears to be Far Beyond The Stars, where he writes about living with less. He quit his job, got rid of everything but seventy-five things (including socks, although I do not know whether he counts a pair as one thing or two) and started his own small business, writing about his experiences and selling his books online.
But the key to running a business on a shoestring is to live on one, and he does. He has prepared a list of sixteen strategies for "keeping your life overhead below your income," many of which are a lot easier if you are a single twenty-something, but that make sense. Some of the more interesting ones:
1. Use free transportation.
We live in a society where having a car is the norm, however cars are expensive, destructive, dirty, and anti-social. If you care about the state of the Gulf oil spill, I’d better not see you driving. The truth about the matter is that it’s fairly easy to live car-free by purchasing a bike, walking, or simply using public transportation.
The Gulf spill is going to be, I believe, a serious game-changer. Climate change was always a tough sell and politically divisive, but everyone can see that gasoline comes sources now that are deep, dirty, corrupt or inimical, or all of the above.
2. Live in a place that's walkable.
If you live in a city or the suburbs where sprawl is the norm, you’re keeping your overhead high by needing a car to obtain your groceries. Stop, think about where you’re living, and make the right choice in order to keep your overhead low.
I just wrote about that on TreeHugger this morning: Cul-De-Sacs Make You Fat. Not only will you spend less money on getting around, you will be healthier too.
3. Prepare your own food.
Eating out for every meal is costly, and also not healthy. Fast food, and even most restaurant food, is filled with stuff you don’t even want to know about, especially salt, fat, and processed sugar that metabolizes faster than our bodies can handle. If you prepare your own food out of whole ingredients such as vegetables, meats, beans and grains, you’ll both lose weight and save money.We will defer to Planet Green's Kelly Rossiter on that one; she has been saying it for years. 5. Live in a smaller space.
One of the big fallacies of the American Dream is the McMansion that MTV convinced us we were supposed to buy. Having a big house with a huge yard and a two-car garage can or will blow your overhead out of proportion. Opt-out of this lie and rent a smaller space in a walkable area.
And not only that, the amount of stuff you have increases in proportion to the space you have to put it in. The current economic crisis has trapped people in real estate that they can't sell, with debts that they can't support. There are sensible alternatives. Here are some: 5 Alternatives to the Buy vs Rent Question
6. Avoid watching TV. 7. Avoid reading mass media.
Everett's argument in both of these points is that you will be barraged with advertising and buy more stuff. He goes on to say "Don’t read newspapers or magazines as most of them encourage consumption (and also kill trees.)"
In that point, I strongly disagree; you might as well say that you shouldn't use your computer because Google puts ads beside your mail, or walk down the street because there are billboards. Advertising is all around us; that doesn't mean there is nothing of value in newspapers or magazines, especially if you read them online.
8. Establish a minimalist social circle.
Be careful who you hang around with. If your best friend’s idea of having fun is racking up credit card debt at the mall, you have a social circle problem. Cultivate relationships around less and encourage people you know to embrace minimalism, or find friends who already have.
I've got to say I disagree with this one too; so many people now just hang out with those who share their own political or religious or now, minimalist beliefs, that's how we get so polarized. Let your friend go to the mall; meet him after.
That's the first eight often sensible and provocative suggestions from Everett Bogue, from more next week.
More on Minimalism in Planet Green:
Frugal Green Living
Frugal Green Living: Real Minimalism is not just a Pretty Façade ...
Go Minimalist - Planet Green
